1837: Louis Daguerre creates images on silver-plated copper,
coated with silver iodide and "developed" with warmed mercury;
Daguerre is awarded a state pension by the French government in
exchange for publication of methods and the rights by other French
citizens to use the Daguerreotype process.

1841: Talbot patents his process under the name "calotype".

1851: Frederick Scott Archer, a sculptor in London, improves
photographic resolution by spreading a mixture of collodion (nitrated
cotton dissolved in ether and alcoohol) and chemicals on sheets of
glass. Wet plate collodion photography was much cheaper than
daguerreotypes, the negative/positive process permitted unlimited
reproductions, and the process was published but not patented.

1853: Nadar (Felix Toumachon) opens his portrait studio in Paris

1854: Adolphe Disderi develops carte-de-visite photography
in Paris, leading to worldwide boom in portrait studios for the next
decade

1855: Beginning of stereoscopic era

1855-57: Direct positive images on glass (ambrotypes) and metal
(tintypes or ferrotypes) popular in the US.

1861: Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell demonstrates a color
photography system involving three black and white photographs, each
taken through a red, green, or blue filter. The photos were turned
into lantern slides and projected in registration with the same color
filters. This is the "color separation" method.

1868: Ducas de Hauron publishes a book proposing a variety of
methods for color photography.

1870: Center of period in which the US Congress sent photographers
out to the West. The most famous images were taken by William
Jackson and Tim O'Sullivan.

1871: Richard Leach Maddox, an English doctor, proposes the use
of an emulsion of gelatin and silver bromide on a glass plate, the
"dry plate" process.

1877: Eadweard Muybridge, born in England as Edward Muggridge,
settles "do a horse's four hooves ever leave the ground at once" bet
among rich San Franciscans by time-sequenced photography of Leland
Stanford's horse.

1878: Dry plates being manufactured commercially.

1880: George Eastman, age 24, sets up Eastman Dry Plate Company
in Rochester, New York. First half-tone photograph appears in a daily
newspaper, the New York Graphic.

1906: Availability of panchromatic black and white film and
therefore high quality color separation color photography. J.P. Morgan
finances Edward Curtis to document the traditional culture of the North American Indian.

1931: Development of strobe photography by Harold ("Doc") Edgerton at MIT

1932: Inception of Technicolor for movies, where three black and
white negatives were made in the same camera under different filters;
Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston, et al,
form Group f/64 dedicated to "straight photographic thought and
production".; Henri Cartier-Bresson buys a Leica and begins a 60-year
career photographing people; On March 14, George Eastman, aged 77, writes suicide
note--"My work is done. Why wait?"--and shoots himself.

1934: Fuji Photo Film founded. By 1938, Fuji is making cameras and
lenses in addition to film.

1935: Farm Security Administration hires Roy Stryker to run a
historical section. Stryker would hire Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange,
Arthur Rothstein, et al. to photograph rural hardships over the next
six years. Roman Vishniac
begins his project of the soon-to-be-killed-by-their-neighbors Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.

1936: Development of Kodachrome, the first color multi-layered
color film; development of Exakta, pioneering 35mm single-lens reflex
(SLR) camera

World War II:

Development of multi-layer color negative films

Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Carl Mydans, and W. Eugene Smith
cover the war for LIFE magazine

There's a timeline called Pentax History
that lists the introduction years for importent Pentax products.
Quite a few of the listings predates what's in philg's listing or seems to be missing from his list.

Since Disc is included, should we also add the current (debatable?) flop APS. I believe it was introduced in May 1996 (could have been June). Perhaps one of the biggest marketing and inter-company attempts at industry revitalization in the past 20 years?

This timeline seems to be missing basic facts. for example it's "Joseph" Nicéphore Niépce and there is no mention of him teaming up with Louis Daguerre or that his son sold the families rights to the process which is how it got to be called Daguerreotype. perhaps this timeline should be replaced with one that actually shows the correct history of photography.

Maybe someone should predict the future of photography! Like when will film no longer be sold in stores? When will the Nikon D600 be released? Thoughts about how PhotoShop 17 will be any different than PhotoShop 7?

In reading through the timeline of photography it seems that the initial intent was to document or record history/information. As photography progressed it seems that the purpose was maybe two-fold...first a purpose of compassion, documenting poverty and social injustice so that something might be done to help...second a purpose of anthropological voyuerism, documenting how others lived or died, war, famine, prostitution, homeless...Could this be accurate? Does this pose implications for modern photography?

However, as a non-American fond and interested by the history of your country, I am saddened by the fact that, albeit your mentioning of a couple of photographic exploits related to your country (Lewis Hine and Walker Evans) you fail to even mention one of the most enourmous personal tasks, IMHO, in the entire history of American photography

I refer to the lifelong dedication of Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) who gave his entire life and fortune to record on photographic film the memories of the last native nations of North America from the Apache, down in the South, to the Nunivak in Alaska.

I do feel sorry when so many modern photographers forget about such a great photographer and anthropologist. His task took him over 30 years -from 1895 to 1928- with an estimated cost in excess of 500,000.- $ (of the time) which was, partially, financed by JP Morgan -ironically-.

The work was published under the title of "The North American Indian,...,in twenty volumes". It was published by the University Press of Cambridge, MA and of the 500 numbered sets originally planned to be printed (it is unknown how many were actually printed) only 272 copies were sold at a price of 3,000 $ each.

His work occupied some five feet of shelf space. Curtis visited 80 tribes and exposed some 40,000 negatives and, even, filmed the Snake Dance. He, also, recorded with a primitive Edison wax cilinder, songs and music as well as writing down stories, legends, customs, etc. The hugest task related to the American Indians ever done

Edward Curtis died unknown to all but some learned few. When he died, the New York Times published a 76 words obituary which ended with this terse statement: "Mr. Curtis was also known as a photographer"

Since the times when it was believed that the best Indian was the dead one have long passed (or have them?) I would like a site like this rending hommage -or, at least, a mention-to this great American photographer.

Should you be interested in knowing more about this great American photographer you can visit any of the following links:

You are missing some inventions that should be included. Each of these can be documented by contemporary publication and use. Pillsbury used the films in his lectures, which were seen by people all over the world and six times at the National Georgraphic Society in DC and all other major forums including universities such as MIT.

1897 - Circuit panorama Camera, Arthur C. Pillsbury, Stanford University, his senior prroject. He used this to record the Gold Rush in the Yukon and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire among other famous shots.

1909 - First nature movie, made by Arthur C. Pillsbury and shown at the Studio of the Three Arrows in Yosemite

1912 - First lapse-time camera to show growth of plants. Designed and built by Arthur C. Pillsbury, first film shown at the Studio of the Three Arrows in Yosemite.

In the 1800's and 1900's posers had to stand very still for long periods of time when they had their picture taken. Does anyone know if children were braced some how so they couldn't move? This picture was taken around 1908.